Helping Your Child Become a Critical Reader

Thinking About Reading Students need to be able to do more than retell the plot of a book they have read They need to be able to discuss the actions critically by analyzing the motivations of the author and the characters They need to be able to make connections between actions in the book and what they already know about the world

Read With Your Child Read a variety of materials with your child; newspapers, magazines and books Discuss the articles with questions that go deeper than asking what happened. Be sure to discuss the vocabulary; if children don’t understand the words, they can’t understand the underlying meaning of the article.

Questions to Ask What word(s) add to the idea that . . .? What is the connection between. . .in paragraph. . . and . . . in paragraph. . .? How are . . . and . . . alike (different)? What is the main idea of this article [story, poem] . . . ? How does the author prove that . . . is the main idea of the text? Note: add the relevant details where you see “….” in each question

Praise One of the most important aspects in student success is praising your child’s efforts Students will continue to work towards a goal when they hear praise for the parts Don’t expect immediate results; developing critical thinking is a process that will develop over time

Activities to Do at Home Take turns reading a book out loud with your child. Fluent reading (reading smoothly and with expression) is important. When you read you can model good fluency and when your child reads, they are getting good practice. Help your child read their textbook by turning headings into questions and reading to find the answers. Play games like Scrabble and Boggle to increase vocabulary.

More Activities Have your child to read to younger children. Subscribe to magazines that interest your child. Listen to books on tape (CD) in the car. Draw scenes from a book or article and have your child explain the important parts (being able to tell why they put certain items in their drawing is important). Make reading fun for your child!